USA Team marathon runner Josphat Boit Skyped with the Poplar Bluff High School Cross Country team on Thursday, Oct. 22, by way of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where he is training at 8,000-feet elevation for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Mules Cross Country Head Coach Beth Lewis-Muse, who was teammates with Boit at Central Methodist University in Fayette, arranged for the video call to take place prior to the Cross Country District Championship over the weekend.

Boit answered student questions about his training regimen, recovery, nutrition and psychology. The Kenyan athlete played soccer in high school, he revealed, and only decided to take up running in order to land a scholarship to attend college in the United States. He has eight siblings and could not otherwise afford pursuing higher education.

Now gearing up for the Olympic trials in February in hopes of making the marathon team, Boit stated: “Everything I do from now until then is a confidence booster.” He works out twice a day, running about 10 miles in the morning and several more at night, maxing out at 120 miles per week, he said.

Josphat Boit poses on the projector screen with the Cross Country team.

Maintaining a racing weight of 123 pounds, Boit is on the Paleo diet, mostly eating meat and vegetables, and in particular red meat for the high levels of iron, which he noted are essential when altitude training. Asked what he does to stay active outside of training, Boit responded: “I take offseason seriously. I stay away from running as much as possible,” he added, “to let the body recover.”

Three high schoolers from Poplar Bluff went on to qualify for sectionals during the Class 4, District 1 Championship on Saturday, Oct. 24, in Jackson: Katie Sliger, Isaiah Williams and Wesley Moore.